[merylsilverburg]

Oh dear, I should've put reasons for why I voted for those animes, shouldn't I? *smacks forehead*

Best Anime Soundtrack: Hellsing or The Big O Original Soundscore. The Hellsing soundtrack basically has dark, eerie, but upbeat music, but that's what makes this soundtrack so wonderful. I especially love the clunky piano music in some songs. The Big O soundtrack is the complete opposite of Hellsing, but the music is so captivating and it's so easy to listen to. It's very soothing, with a majority of piano music and orchestrated songs. I especially love "Sleep My Dear", the main piano theme to the series.

Best Anime Hero: Alucard (Hellsing) or Himura, Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin). Heh, as Reid said, Kenshin represents all moral, pure, honorific qualities and that's what makes him a true hero. However, I picked Alucard (similar to Reid's Spike) because he is basically badass but not only that, Alucard has that confidence (or is he cocky...? ) that I haven't seen in such a long time, so it's refreshing. Also, he does have
some honorable qualities (maybe not in the same way as Kenshin), but it's there.

Best Anime Villain: This is tough...either Legato (Trigun) or Angel (The Big O). I said Legato because, while I don't quite remember what he did since it's been ages, I do remember that this guy really pissed me off and was very "evil" in his ways. As for Angel, she also made me incredibly mad (she's also pretty annoying to begin with) but her reasons for doing what she did were just very...manipulative and not really "evil", but more like...unreasonable. Which is why I voted for her.

Best Anime Death Sequence: Wolfwood (Trigun). As CC mentioned that Kenshin’s death was one of the saddest, I agree...however, I’d say the most beautiful death was when Wolfwood died. I just loved the whole build-up leading to his death. While I do think it was annoying to see him die in such a way (after all those episodes), I still think it’s one of the most shocking and unexpected ones.

Best Anime Action Sequence: Hellsing. Well...basically the fight scenes are incredible. Some may not be so wonderful visually, but I just loved the majority of the fights between the characters especially Alucard and Anderson. Since Alucard is nearly invincible and Anderson is a Regenerator, it’s always so interesting to see their battles because they truly want to kill the other. Absolutely fascinating.
EDIT: My second favorite would have to be in Rurouni Kenshin. There are a lot of good fights in this series, but my favorite would have to be Soujiro's and Kenshin's fight. Holy cow, this fight just blew my mind away...beautifully animated, I love this fight.

Best Movie: Millenium Actress or Whisper of the Heart. I said Millenium Actress because I love the story and how it was played out. It was so tragic though, but it was wonderful to be “included” in the journey through Chiyoko’s
past and the events leading up to her life currently. The animation is superb as well. For my second choice, I said Whisper of the Heart because, while this story is more
calmer and more of a romance, I just really love stories about life, maturity, experience and all that. When it involves Studio Ghibli, the stories are made even more sweet and sad, so Whisper of the Heart really set it for me.

Best Story: Cowboy Bebop or The Big O. Cowboy Bebop’s story isn’t unique or different...the story is quite unoriginal...however, I chose this as best story because I think it was played out quite nicely and there were great episodes along the way. There were only a few episodes that were somewhat “pointless”, but a majority of the story followed through the development and changes of the characters and you see their lives being affected by this change. I think that’s what’s so brilliant about it. As for my second choice, The Big O would have to be one hell of an original plot to me. The city...the event that happened 40 years ago and the intrigue and mystery surrounding it...all so mysterious and entrancing. A seriously addicting story that actually makes you wonder and think about what happened in the past and try to figure out all the little clues in the anime and how they could be related.

Best Animation (overall): Wolf's Rain. While Cowboy Bebop has classic animation and is quite beautiful even now, Wolf’s Rain is an updated, more amazing version of Bebop. BONES really does a splendid job of animating and I don’t even think they use a second studio, their animation is so good. The colors, the details, the smoothness of the scenes...for a TV series, it’s A++ quality.

Best Anime Heroine: R. Dorothy Wayneright (The Big O). There are many heroines I could pick for this category, but I chose R. Dorothy for the fact that she can really do something. Sure, she’s an android so of course it’s cheating a bit, but even so, there are other androids that could be made to be completely useless, however she’s not. She also does more than physical work for she put a complete effect on the main character, who is a real pain at times. She’s an android who acts so human and seems to have more emotion than a real human being. And that’s because humans take advantage of having emotions since it’s something which we are already “born” with. So, with R.
Dorothy already being incredibly realistic, you also see her express more emotion than normal, even though it’s subtle.

Best Characters (meaning which series do you like the overall characters?): HeatGuy J. I don’t know...there’s something about the cast of this series which is just so...darn likeable. Even the supposed “villain”, Clair, is likeable...despite him being a selfish, immature, spoiled and pathetic guy. There actually isn’t a person I really dislike in the whole thing, which is amazing for me since I find annoyances/flaws easily.

Best English Voice Acting: This is tough too...either Cowboy Bebop, The Big O (both by licensed by Bandai), or Shoujo Kakumei Utena. Considering the voice actor for Spike also did Roger, it's a no brainer that it sounds good. However, both series features excellent voice acting and it's too hard to decide on just one. For Shoujo Kakumei Utena, I think the voices fit the characters scarily well and I actually like it better than the Japanese.

Best Japanese Voice Acting: The Japanese usually does outstanding work on the voice acting, but I think Fruits Basket really takes the cake. Let's just say I can't imagine another person doing a voice for one of the characters in this series because it would just ruin/destroy it. You really feel and see the personality of each characters, just by the voice alone. Amazing.